Set Among Kings Book Review

Overview

    Kedar is nothing, a street rat attempting to find food and survive on the streets. It's a hard life. He and his friends just manage to live off scraps they steal or find in the garbage, and it's even harder with the Promisers and the Stealers lurking in the streets. They are hoping to steal an unsuspecting street urchin and send him into slavery, or if they steal a girl to a far worse life. Kedar doesn't think there's any way out of his life until the unthinkable happens when the King visits his city. 

Thoughts

    I'm going to be honest, I don't typically like allegory, especially one as blatant as this one. I find that allegorical stories tend to forget about the characters in favor of pushing across the message that they are allegorizing. However, I was pleasantly surprised that Set Among Kings doesn't have that problem. The character arcs are woven into the allegory in a way that makes it beautiful to read. There were a few things that I didn't like, though some of them are just personal preferences. God is called Immanuel, which I thought was strange for a fictional world to have the exact same name for God that we do. Kedar doesn't really seem to care too much about the subtle jabs that the nobles give him, which underplays some of the tension that the earlier parts have. I would have liked a more active part of the King, especially when Kedar is rescued by the Clandestine Guard. In conclusion, this is a touching story about God's forgiveness and about a thief that becomes a prince* and how he brings his friends, and ultimately most of the street scum, out of the gutter and into his new home. Arioch made a decent villain, with Neta-Li adding a sinister feeling to his schemes. Asaph is a very nice character, with an arc similar to Kedar's, but different as he was already in the palace and the King's favor. All in all, I would recommend this story to others and give it a 👍.

*Not an Aladdin reference 🤣